t and
passion, of intellect directing passion, and of passion inflaming
intellect, which is art as understood by man. It is to this second group
of causes, those I have called mental, that the inferiority of the
woman painter is traceable. There is a lack of intellect in her work. It
is true that the male painter is often just a painter, and that I can
think of no case to-day which reproduces the engineering capacities of
Leonardo da Vinci, but I refer rather to a general intellectual sweep
than to a specialized capacity. Men do not hold themselves so far aloof
from politics, business and philosophy as do women; too many of the
latter read nothing whatever. For some painters a novel is too much,
while their selection among the contents of the newspaper might be
improved upon by a domestic servant. There is a lack of depth, a lack of
intellectual quality, of that "general" quality which, directed into
other channels, produces the engineer, the business man and the
politician. I do not believe in "artistic capacity", "scientific
capacity", "business capacity"; there is nothing but "capacity" which
takes varying forms, just as there is red hair and black hair, but
always hair. In male painting intellect sometimes stands behind passion;
in female painting the attitude is purely sensuous, and that is not to
be wondered at: from the days of the anthropoid ape to this one we have
developed nothing in woman but the passionate quality; we have taught
her to charm, to smile, and to lie until she thinks she can do nothing
but charm, and believes in her own lies. We have refused her education,
we have made her into a slave. Thus, while many of the male painters are
not intellectuals, they have been able to draw upon the higher average
quality of the male mind, while woman to-day, desirous of so doing, will
find very little to the credit of the account of her sex.

What is the conclusion to be drawn? It is to my mind obvious enough. If
woman is producing inferior work it is because she is still an inferior
creature, but I do not think she will remain one. Her progress during
the last thirty years has been staggering; she has forced herself into
the trades, into professions, into politics; she has produced standard
works; in one or two cases she has been creative in science; and I
believe, therefore, that her intellect is on the up grade, and that her
sex is accumulating those resources which will serve as a background to
the artisti